Palestine vote a risk for Australia’s UN seat bid

Australia’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council could be scuppered if a crucial vote on Palestine is held before the UN’s Security Council election on October 18. Diplomatic sources have said a vote to make Palestine a non-state member of the UN General Assembly would “virtually cruel’’ any chance Australia has of securing a seat.

Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
has publicly committed to opposing the promotion for Palestine in the UN hierarchy, siding with Israel and the US. Former foreign minister
Kevin Rudd
has urged Australia to abstain.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Rayed Al-Maliki indicated as late as Wednesday this week that “no date had been set’’ for the vote, though it was stressed that the Palestinian Authority wanted it dealt with this year. President
Mahmoud Abbas
is expected to talk about the Palestinian Authority’s desire to upgrade its status at the UN on Thursday.

Professor Amin Saikal of the ANU Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies said if the Palestine vote was before October 18 and Australia voted against it would be the end of the security council bid. “It would seal Australia’s fate as far as the Arab world is concerned,’’ he said.

Diplomatic sources remain “cautiously optimistic’’ Australia can win a seat despite entering the race four years later than rivals Finland and Luxembourg. The trio is competing for two non-permanent seats from 2013-14 for two years on the UN’s main body dealing with security challenges. The UN Security Council can impose sanctions or approve military action.

Australia started its race in 2008 with New Zealand and the Pacific Island countries voicing approval and has since won support from African countries stressing mining ties and has also received positive indications from the Arab spring countries of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The difficulty has being securing support in Europe, where countries favour their own, and Asia where many of Australia’s close allies gave their votes to Finland and Luxembourg ahead of Australia’s late entry to the race.

Indonesia supported Luxembourg and Finland to help its own bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, though Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are believed to be supporting Australia.